


Where the Dark Things Are

by mneiai



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Jedi Apprentice Series - Jude Watson & Dave Wolverton, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Anti-clone prejudice, Deception, Don't Like Don't Read, Dubious Morality, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Minor Character Death, No beta we die like younglings, Past Jango Fett/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Past Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze, Qui-Gon Jinn Bashing, Sidious got rid of the Rule of Two, Sith Obi-Wan Kenobi, Voyeurism, canon typical bigotry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:34:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26471224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mneiai/pseuds/mneiai
Summary: Playing at still being a Jedi has its perks.
Relationships: Alpha-17/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Alpha-17/Obi-Wan Kenobi/Sheev Palpatine, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Sheev Palpatine
Comments: 25
Kudos: 260
Collections: Anything But Qui-Gon





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to [my Discord](https://discord.gg/RqMq9yN) enablers with special thanks to SiladhielLithvirax (you know why lolol)
> 
> Multichapter work because I'm probably going to play around in this universe a lot haha

Darth Ecdysias didn't get out much anymore. Well, no, that wasn't entirely true--he didn't get out of the _Core_ much, anymore. He knew it was a combination of Sidious wishing to keep him close and his own skills at negotiation and politics, but one doesn't become a _Sith Lord_ to sit around playing nice with politicians.

If someone had told him, as an innocent little beleaguered Padawan running around behind the worst sort of Jedi that he'd come to _miss_ the action of his missions, he would have never believed them, even with the Force ringing the truth through his mind.

This trip out to Kamino was supposed to be routine--check on the cloning facilities, make a few veiled threats, then hurry home with the latest round of data packets for Sidious to peruse. There was not supposed to be any sort of attack against the facility.

Perhaps Tyranus was finally making his move against Sidious and this was his declaration of intent. Or perhaps he didn't expect anyone to make it off planet alive to send word to Sidious. Either was possible.

He used to have his old grandmaster's favor, when he first Fell. Before Sidious gifted Ecdysias with Qui-Gon Jinn and he got to make his former Master _suffer_ in all the ways the Dark whispered of to him. It had been the first time since Sidious had forced him away from the Light that Ecdysias had felt anything approaching rightness.

The gratefulness he'd shown Sidious for the present had been the first step to sealing his place within the Sith Court. He'd always been good at attracting the most dangerous people, after all, and Sidious had wanted him for a very long time.

"General, we should get you to safety."

Ecdysias looked over at the clone, amused. "Do you think I cannot fight," he glanced at the designation on his armor, "A-17?"

"No, sir, just that this was an inconvenient time for the Seppies to attack and taking you prisoner might be their goal."

That was...a more thoughtful response than he'd expected, but if he remembered correctly the Alpha class were older clones, trained by Jango Fett himself. 

"If they want me, they'll continue attacking until they _get_ me, my dear. I find that sometimes the best way to deal with a trap is to...spring it."

Whatever the clone was expecting, it probably wasn't for Ecdysias to shed his cloak and stalk towards the battle, but he didn't let that phase him. They worked well together, A-17 providing cover fire and picking off some of the more distant droids as Obi-Wan cut through any in his way to the communications hub the Kaminoans and clones had been cut off from.

In the glow of the Jedi lightsaber he was using, the darkness of the building seemed less ominous. The way red would have lit up the shadows would have been wasted on droids, regardless.

While clones and Jedi died in other parts of Tipoca City, they called for backup and then did their best to protect the undecanted cadets until the day was won.

"You did well, A-17."

"I'm an ARC Trooper, I wouldn't do anything less." The implied slight to the other clones, the ones that had died in droves around them, didn't go unnoticed.

Fett was an attractive man, though Ecdysias knew that their goals diverged too much for anything more than a tryst or two between them. This clone was a perfect copy, early enough in the batches that he still maintained some of that Mando'ad fire Fett was known for.

"I could use a trustworthy guard on my return to Coruscant, traveling alone while the Seppies are after me wouldn't be the best idea." He let his eyes rove over the clone, hoping the clone had enough experience with people to understand what he was suggesting with the look. "I hope your up to keeping me company on the journey, A-17."

The clone cocked his head to the side, gaze intense without his helmet on, interest flaring in the Force. "Don't worry, General Kenobi, I'll get you back home in one piece."


	2. Chapter 2

At eighteen, Obi-Wan had thought he had enough life experience to handle anything--for the Order, that might have been true. Not many other Padawans had lived through everything he had and he had only just returned from a year on the run in the Mandalore Sector, which wasn't even in Republic space and was certainly well-known for its dangers even when one wasn't being hunted by Death Watch.

Being forced to take a cycle as a junior Senate liaison because the Council thought he and his Master needed a break seemed insulting. When had he ever gotten a break, before? When had he ever _asked_ for one?

It was even worse when, instead of being assigned any of the truly influential Senators to work with, he was assigned some Mid-Rim nobody.

But Obi-Wan was still going to do the best job he could, he didn't have it in him to slack even at the unimportant tasks, and so he showed up everyday, he took copious notes, and he tried to get along with the Senator.

That might have been why he noticed something seemed...off. Senator Sheev Palpatine was from an unimportant planet in an unimportant sector. He was a career politician of no real note, having not made any real waves during his time in the Senate.

Why did so many powerful people seem to meet with him? Why did he seem to have so many personal relationships with them?

Sometimes Obi-Wan wanted to ask one of the Jedi Knights or Masters who worked with the Senate, but every time he opened his mouth to bring it up he just...couldn't. Like something was grasping at his thoughts and forcing them down, away.

The first time he actually was able to _notice_ that happening and _remember_ it, he'd been terrified. He knew that wasn't normal.

Who had the strength to mindtrick a Jedi? Obi-Wan knew he had the strongest shields of his age group, it wasn't just that he was some weak-willed Padawan to take advantage of.

He shored up his shields as best he could, went back to the Senator, and began actually _observing_ him and the space around them. That was when he started to see it, to feel it.

Maybe it was the constant exposure that was helping him build up a resistance. Maybe Palpatine had decided to _let_ him find out. 

Whatever the reason, Obi-Wan was horribly aware that he was surrounded, day in and day out, by some of the Darkest of the Force he'd ever felt...and none of the other Jedi ever seemed to catch on to it.

Obi-Wan didn't know what else to do, no one noticed and he couldn't tell them. He was so anxious he couldn't even release it all into the Force, instead compressing it and hiding it behind his shields, hoping no one would find it.

Sometimes, during his breaks, he cried in the fresher, knowing he _had_ to get away but not knowing _how_.

Palpatine found him during one of those times and treated him like some delicate object, stroking his hair from his face and cooing at him as though he could calm him down.

"My poor boy, you're going through so much. You've been so strong, but you can't resist forever. It will be so much easier if you stop, if you let me in."

He shook his head, mending his collapsing shields, trying not to notice how Palpatine hovered right outside of them like a predator waiting for the last embers of a fire to die.

"What _are_ you?" he whispered, wishing he sounded more like the strong, in-control Jedi he pretended to be.

That earned him a smile that looked so warm and caring it made him sick. "You know exactly what I am, you just don't want to believe it."

He didn't. Not then, not for months after, even as Palpatine broke through his shields and latched onto his mind like a parasite. Even as he was forced to learn how to hide his own signature so the Darkness didn't give him away.

When he finally did, he was kneeling at Darth Sidious' feet, pledging himself to his Master, just wanting the torment to finally end.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like my fics and want to discuss them more, check out my [Discord server, Cursed Content!](https://discord.gg/W3BUsdT)

Darth Ecdysias knew his own strengths. He was not the strongest Force user, nor the wisest, but his connection to the Unifying Force could be nearly overwhelming when he allowed it in.

His Jedi Master had never let him practice so much with it, preferring the Living Force and wanting Obi-Wan to prosper with just that, but his Sith Master had seen his strengths and delighted in them. Sidious had him spend hours in torturous training to reach greater and greater depths as he dived within the Force, searching out visions just at the edges of his being.

Such things did not make anyone omniscient, no matter how Sidious played at it, but it did give him unexpected edges. Especially as the Dark Side was so clear, so strong, compared to the cloud that rested between the Light and its users.

If the Council appreciated how often his "feelings" were correct (even when they were contradicted by Yoda himself), they never actually said. He'd been an accomplished Senior Padawan when his Master "died," had faced his Trials with surprising finesse to them, and had gained his Mastery through his practice of Soresu, as opposed to raising a Padawan. At no point had he ever received true praise from the Council, sometimes making Obi-Wan wonder if they didn't unconsciously sense what he was, the way he had known early on there was something off about Sidious.

He was invited to the Council after the first few battles of the war had devastated the upper ranks of the Jedi--as Sidious had known they would. The clones were well-trained, but most Jedi were unused to war and even fewer were used to commanding troops during war. Soon they were placing themselves into harms way, too kind to let the clones take all of the risk, and they were dying.

Sidious took great pleasure in each and every Jedi death that came across his desk. Jango Fett did, as well, the few times he and Ecdysias had run into each other after the war began. And, while they were not much on speaking terms, Tyrannus gloated when he could.

That left Ecdysias the only one involved in plotting out the war that felt...something...from the deaths of the Jedi. 

So he tried, when it wasn't going against a plot, to keep them alive. He gave advice, despite not being out on the front commanding troops. At Council meetings, at Senate meetings, at social events with the Jedi Generals and their commanders. 

A-17, who Obi-Wan had started calling "Alpha" because it flowed better off his tongue, said it was appreciated, that somehow his too-soft heart had gotten him high regard among the clones for "caring" about their "lives." Sometimes Alpha scoffed at how easily the standards were led to believe Ecdysias was a good little Jedi, but other times he spoke of it while holding Ecdysias down, his lips right at his ears, muttering about his brilliant mind and how wasted he was outside of battle.

Those times amused Sidious, at least, who watched with affected disinterest whenever he let the clone "use" Ecdysias. They both knew it wasn't the humiliating activity that Sidious pretended it must be for Ecdysias, but played along in case the illusion was the only thing letting Sidious look the other way at their dalliance. 

Now, though, staring at the newest acolyte his Master thought of making into a true Sith, Ecdysias' sense of dread was going wild.

It wasn't his age that mattered, though it certainly would have been unheard of among the Jedi to bring in an apprentice in their early 20s. It wasn't even his attitude--a former slave who had freed himself and all of the baggage that entailed. 

There was just a...warning. That pinged through his thoughts as he was introduced to Vader, that drifted around him when he noticed Vader watching him. 

Something was coming and it had to do with Vader. Ecdysias could only hope his suspicion of the young man wasn't half the cause.


End file.
